Gripper-guide arrangement



May 27 1924.

E. F. DUDLEY GRIPPER GUIDEv ARRANGEMENT Filed March 24,-, 192.

atented May 2?, 1924.

are m EDWARD F. DUDLEY, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MIEHLE PRINTING PRESS & MFG. (10., Q1 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

GPPER-GUIDE ARRANGEMENT.

Application flied march 24, 1822. Serial No. 546,325.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD F. DUDLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefuf Improvements in Gripper-Guide Arrangements, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to printing presses and more particularly to cylinder gripper guide mechanism.

In registering a sheet of paper it is a well known fact that a sheet can be registered more accurately by what is known as point register as distinguished from line register. Forfexample, if the registering edge of a sheet of paper to be registeredis not cut perfectly straight, it is apparent that it would be quite impossible to register such sheet accurately by line register, that is, by having such irregular edge of a sheet engage a large number of register members arranged in a straight line. On the other hand, however, such sheet even though the edge to be registered were irregular, could be registered by point register, that is, registered at two points. 4

Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide simple and eificient gripper mechanism whereby sheets of material may be point registered. I

Any other object is to provlde gripper means whereby various grippers ma be selectively used for point registering s eets of material varying in dimensions. 7

Another object is to provide point register gripper mechanism simple and efiicient in operation and adapted to meet the various requirements for successful commercial use.

These and other objects are accomplished by means of the arrangement disclosed on the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which I Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view of a printing cylinder embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken in the plane of line 2-2 of Figure 1; Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective view of one of my improved cylinder grippers;

Fi re 4 is a reduced schematic view showing the grippers in plan view and a sheet selectively point registered with re.- spect to two of said grippers; and

Figures 5', 6 and 7 are top plan, front elevational and bottom plan views respectively 4 of a modified form of gripper. p

The various novel featuresof my invention will be apparent from-the following description and drawings, and will be par-. ticularly pointed ont in the appended claims.

Referring to the figures of the drawings, it will be noted that my invention is dlsclosed in connection with a printing press cylinder 10, which carries a plurality of grippers, each having agripper head 11 and a shank 12, said grippers being opened by grippers are housed in the gripper bar 16, between the upper edge 17 of which and. the gripper heads 11 sheet-material fed to the cylinder is gripped.

Heretofore t e sheet engaging portions of the shanks of the grippers have been round and such round outer sheet engaging sur-- any suitable mechanism 13 including arms faces of the shanks have been the same disthe shank. Accordingly, with the use of f such grippers, it is apparent that point registratlon may be efi'ected by presenting the rounded portion. of only-two of the gripper shanks to the sheetto be registered, the flattened portions 18 of all of the other gripper shanks 12 being presented but not being engaged by the sheet of paper being registered.

Referring particularly to Figure 4: of the drawings, it will be noted that I have shown eleven grippers'in elevation, with only two of the grippers 19 and, 20 being used for front registering the sheet- 21. In other words, the rounded portions of shanks 19 and 20 are presented to and engaged by the front edge of the sheet 21 being registered. 'Ihe shanks of all of the other grip= pers are presenting their flattened faces 18 to the sheet, but it will be noted that the sheet does not engage such flattened por tions. In this connection, attention is called to the fact that each of the grippers is retatably mounted and its lower end 22 is flattened and wed e-shaped and fits into a correspondingly s aped recess 23 in its associated supporting and actuating member 14:. Accordingly, each gripper may occupy one of two positions 180 degrees apart with. respect to its associated member 14. In one position it presents its rounded face to a sheet of paper to be registered and in the other position it presents its fiat surface 18. For rotating the rippers the head 11 of each is provided wit a slot or groove 24 for the reception of a screw driver. force need be ap lied through the screw driver to the grippers to overcome the springs 15 in rotating the grippers from one position to another. As a matter of convenience, the heads of the grippers are provided with arrows indicating the rounded sheet engaging portions of the shanks.

In Figures 5, 6 and? I have shown a modified form of gripper in which the shank 25 in each case has three points 26, 27 and 28 of re ister at different distances from the longitu inal center of the shank, such points preferably being angularly spaced degrees apart,.whereby the line of front register may be changed. Each shank also has the flat part 29 which is presented when the gripper is not to be used actively in front registering a sheet of material. The lower end of each shank 25 is wedge-shaped and flattened on four sides so that the grippers may be yieldably held in place at each 90 degrees of rotation thereof.

By means of this arrangement the gripers may be selectively chosen and moved rom one position to another to accommodate any sized sheet of paper within the range of the press, provision being made at all times for point registering the sheet material as distinguished from line registering. It is my intention to cover all modifications of the invention falling within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a printing press, a cylinder having rotatably mounted grippers carried thereby, said grippers having gripping heads and shanks therebelow, said shanks having sheet engaging portions extending radially beyond other portions in the same transverse plane whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point registering sheet material.

2. In a printing press, movably mounted grippers having gripping heads and shanks Only suthcient.

meager therebelow, said shanks having sheet engaglng portions extending radially beyond other portions whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point registering sheet material.

In a prigtingpress, rpovably mounted grippers, sa1 gri ers avin ['1 in heads and shanks Ifierebelow, s aid sliifnl having sheet engaging portions extending radially beyond other portions whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point re istering sheet material, and means for re easably locking said grippers in difierent positions.

4:. In a printing press, movably mounted grippers having gripping heads and shanks, means for engaging said shanks for releasably holding same in diderent positions with respect thereto, said shanks having sheet engaging portions extending radially beyond other portions thereof whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point registering sheet material.

5. In a printing press, a cylinder having rotatably mounted grippers carried thereby, said grippers having gripping heads and shanks therebelow, said shanks having sheet engaging portions extending radially beyond other portions in the same transverse plane whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point registering sheet material, said latter may be engaged by a tool for rotation.

6. In a printing press, movably mounted grippers having gripping heads and shanks therebelow, said shanks having sheet engaging portions extending radially beyond other portions whereby said grippers may be selectively used for point registering sheet material, said grippers having indicating means for indicating the positions of said grippers to indicate the operative positions thereof.

7. A. gripper for a printing press including a gripper head and a shank, said shank having portions located at different distances from the longitudinal center thereof whereby said gripper may be eifective or not in point registering.

8. A gripper for printing presses including a gripper head and a rounded shank, the latter of which is provided with a flat portion whereby said gripper may be efiective or not in point registering.

9. A gripper for a printing press including a gripper head and a shank, said shank having portions located at difierent distances from the longitudinal center thereof whereby the line of register may be changed.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of March, 1922, i

EDWARD F. DUDLEY.

head having means whereby the Mill IND 

